'Credibility Issues' Undid Duke Case, Report Says

By DUFF WILSON

Published: April 28, 2007

The North Carolina attorney general's investigation of the Duke lacrosse case found that the accuser had ''insurmountable credibility issues,'' including frequently changing statements that were contradicted by physical evidence, photographs, other witnesses and her own previous assertions.

The 21-page summary of conclusions released yesterday by Roy A. Cooper, the attorney general, also provided the fullest account yet of the lacrosse team party where acrimony led to accusation. Mr. Cooper repeated the words he used two weeks ago when he dismissed the charges against three former students. They were ''innocent,'' and there was ''no credible evidence'' of any attack.

The report barely mentioned Michael B. Nifong, the Durham County district attorney whom Mr. Cooper described on April 11 as a ''rogue prosecutor'' who had rushed to judgment. Mr. Nifong is facing ethics charges that are scheduled to be heard in June and could result in disbarment.

Mr. Nifong's office said he would decline comment on the report ''until all proceedings involving those cases have been completed.'' Mr. Cooper declined interview requests.

Joseph B. Cheshire and Brad Bannon, two of the lawyers for the former students, said in a statement that they were pleased that the report said ''there simply was no physical or sexual assault whatsoever.''

In an indirect reference to Mr. Nifong, the report said the attorney general's review of the case was the first time the accuser had been asked formally about inconsistencies in her account. Mr. Nifong has acknowledged that he never questioned the accuser about the details of the case. He had said he simply believed her, based on police reports and a nurse's accounts, and wanted to put her before a jury.

Mr. Nifong dropped rape charges against the three men -- David F. Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade W. Seligmann -- but kept other sexual offense charges in December after the woman changed her account of the party, where she had been hired to dance as a stripper. After the state bar filed the ethics charges against Mr. Nifong, he turned over the case to the attorney general on Jan. 13.

State prosecutors studied more than 7,000 documents and interviewed 47 people, including the accuser, a 28-year-old single mother of three, several times.

''Her proposed testimony about critical events changed whenever it was demonstrated that what she was saying could not be accurate,'' the report said. She claimed pictures had been altered, denied making statements attributed to her by the police and gave ''the impression that she was improvising as the interviews progressed.''

The report added, ''While witnesses often have inconsistencies in details when recounting events over time, the volume of inconsistent statements and the fact that many of these were substantial and were in regard to significant events rendered the truthfulness of the accusing witness in serious doubt.''

The report said the process by which the accuser identified the three men was of ''questionable validity.'' She was shown photos only of lacrosse team members.

The report also pointed out a lack of DNA or other forensic evidence to support the charges.

''No medical evidence confirmed her stories,'' it said. A sexual-assault nurse examiner ''based her opinion that the exam was consistent with what the accusing witness was reporting largely on the accusing witness's demeanor and complaints of pain rather than on objective evidence.''

The accuser would have been an unreliable witness because she was impaired on the night of the party, the report said. She drank two beers and at times was incoherent, it said.

After months of piecemeal accounts, the report also offered the most complete narrative yet of what occurred overnight March 13 into the early hours of March 14, 2006, based on interviews with 19 men at the party, 25 photographs and 2 videos.

The accuser and another stripper were paid $800 to dance for two hours but stopped after five minutes when one of the men made a sexual remark while holding a broomstick. The women retreated to the bathroom and then outside, the report said. Some players felt cheated.

Two players, separately, took money out of a bag that had been left by one of the dancers -- only to be told by two team co-captains, including Mr. Evans, to return the money.

The women came back inside after some of the players apologized to them, but soon ''went back into the bathroom alone together and refused to come out.'' Mr. Seligmann and Mr. Finnerty left the party shortly after the dancing stopped, records showed. There was not enough time for even a brief attack, the attorney general wrote.

According to the report, a video showed the woman later, outside the house, ''talking incoherently, apparently to no one in particular,'' before lying down and then being helped to the car.

The report said the second dancer then made a racial and sexual comment about the young men, who responded with racial epithets. The second dancer declined to talk with the attorney general unless she received a subpoena; the attorney general did not subpoena her.

It was much later, after 2 a.m., after the police took the accuser to a Durham center for mental health and substance abuse, when she first said, in response to a question, that she had been raped.